Variability and trends of extreme dry and wet seasonal precipitation in Argentina. A retrospective analysis

The variability in seasonal mean and extreme precipitation is analyzed for several regions of Argentina to the north of 39º S, using long-term monthly time series data which expand from 1860 to 2006. The selected locations can be considered as representative of different climatic regions. This work focuses on the analysis of monthly rainfall distribution, significant seasonal trends, changes in variance and extreme monthly values, in order to establish the magnitude of the seasonal climatic rainfall variability through time for central Argentina. A 40-yr moving window was employed in order to analyze seasonal variability of rainfall extremes. Extremes were computed for different probability levels of a theoretical distribution function over/below the 80th/20th percentile. The gamma distribution was selected among five other theoretical distributions, and the scale and shape parameters were computed using the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and the bootstrap method for 1000 resample data sets, as well. Trend analysis was performed for each window on winter and summer means and tested for significance. The use of a moving window allowed detecting the window of maximum absolute values for the trends. Research results show significant temporal shifts in seasonal rainfall distribution and return values (RV) that were computed for different frequencies (once every five, 10 and 20 years). Generally, summer precipitation extremes have become wetter for the whole region. Rainfall amounts for summer wet/dry extremes (W/D) corresponding to the 90th (for W) and 10th (for D) percentiles were subjected to significant increase, but depending on the geographical area this effect spreads slightly differently over records of years. A common-for-all-stations period of such summer increase trend in extreme values spans from the window 1921-1960 to the last window analyzed: 1967-2006. This behavior was not observed for north and west Argentina during winter, except for the region represented by Bahía Blanca, where the 10% D extreme has increased throughout the study period.     

Application of statistical geo-spatial information technology to soil stratification in the Seoul metropolitan area

Typical geotechnical testing results reflect the level of soil uncertainty, which requires statistical corrections of the data for an appropriate engineering decision. This study proposes frameworks to detect outlying data points using statistical analyses, the cross-validation-based method and the generalised extreme value distribution-based method. The borehole data regarding soil depth distribution in a central area of Seoul, South Korea are assessed to validate the aforementioned methods for comparison with the distribution-based method and the Moran scatterplot method. The results show that the proposed methods enable more reliable spatial distributions to be achieved with a quantitative evaluation of local reliability.     

中国极端降水事件的频数和强度特征

使用1951-2004年中国738个测站逐日降水资料,采用百分位的方法定义极端降水事件的阈值,分析了不同持续时间的极端降水事件的时空分布及变化趋势特征。结果表明,极端降水事件多发于35°N以南,特别是在长江中下游和江南地区以及高原东南部,且在这些地区极端降水事件持续时间也较长。季节分布上,主要出现在夏季,以低持续性事件为主。在中国东部地区,持续时间越长的极端降水其强度往往越强。趋势分析表明,全国持续1d极端事件的相对频数具有上升趋势而平均强度具有下降趋势,其空间上均表现为全国大部分上升、华北和西南等地下降的趋势。持续2d以上极端事件在长江中下游流域、江南地区和高原东部等地区有显著增多和增强的趋势,而在华北和西南地区有减少和减弱趋势,但全国平均的趋势不显著。     

Analysis of a Long Record of Annual Maximum Rainfall in Athens,Greece, and Design Rainfall Inferences

An annual series of maximum dailyrainfall extending through 1860–1995, i.e., 136 years,was extracted from the archives of a meteorologicalstation in Athens. This is the longest rainfall recordavailable in Greece and its analysis is required forthe prediction of intense rainfall in Athens, wherecurrently major flood protection works are under way.Moreover, the statistical analysis of this long recordcan be useful for investigating more generalisedissues regarding the adequacy of extreme valuedistributions for extreme rainfall analysis and theeffect of sample size on design rainfall inferences.Statistical exploration and tests based on this longrecord indicate no statistically significant climaticchanges in extreme rainfall during the last 136 years.Furthermore, statistical analysis shows that theconventionally employed Extreme Value Type I (EV1 orGumbel) distribution is inappropriate for the examinedrecord (especially in its upper tail), whereas thisdistribution would seem as an appropriate model iffewer years of measurements were available (i.e., partof this sample were used). On the contrary, theGeneral Extreme Value (GEV) distribution appears to besuitable for the examined series and its predictionsfor large return periods agree with the probablemaximum precipitation estimated by the statistical(Hershfield's) method, when the latter is consideredfrom a probabilistic point of view. Thus, the resultsof the analysis of this record agree with a recently(and internationally) expressed scepticism about theEV1 distribution which tends to underestimate thelargest extreme rainfall amounts. It is demonstratedthat the underestimation is quite substantial (e.g.,1 : 2) for large return periods and this fact must beconsidered as a warning against the widespread use ofthe EV1 distribution for rainfall extremes.     

20世纪暴雨和洪水极值的年代际变化

利用20世纪100年(特别是后50年)2万多个雨量站和175个大中河流水文站的实测和调查雨量和流量资料,分析了中国大陆(外流区)暴雨和洪水极值的年代际变化,其中包括长期站暴雨的年代均值变化、20世纪50年点雨量极值的前后期平均值对比、最大点雨量发生年代分布和特大洪峰流量的年代分布。分别就5种历时、不同地区的暴雨洪水极值随年代的变化作了分析,揭示了变化的事实,计算了多项年代比率,探讨了影响因子。     

近40年中国平均气候与极值气候变化的概述

随着中国气象局对近50年来逐日气象观测资料的释放,人们从不同的角度对中国平均气候和极端气候的分布特征有了更多的了解.从目前研究的结果来看,这些认识需要有一个集成,即需要有一个总体的归纳和解释.通过中国近40年来的温度极值和降水极值事件的分析认识到全球增暖和区域环流异常决定着气候极值事件的分布格局.与全球增暖相联系的是:我国微量降水在空间上表现为一致的减少趋势,我国北方寒潮事件显著减少,冷夜和冷日的减少与暖夜和暖日的增多并存,以及极端强降水有增多的趋势.与东亚季风气流和西风带气流异常对应的我国有效降水在区域分布上发生了显著变化,东部季风区中的"北涝南旱"从1970年代末转型为"南涝北旱",与华南的偏干一起形成了东部季风区降水从华南、长江到华北的"-、 、-"异常分布型,但华南在1991年出现了转湿的突变;东北和西北先后从1983年和1987年前后转为暖湿气候.极端温度和极端降水趋势的空间分布与平均温度和平均降水趋势的空间分布一致.     

An extreme value model for expressing grain size and bed thickness as functions of the spatial variation of grain frequency

An extreme value model is developed for the situation where a cloud of sediment particles moves away from the boundary of a defined source area while undergoing constant depletion due to deposition of the larger particles. Taking the particles deposited at distance xfrom the source boundary to represent a distribution of largest extremes derived from a parent distribution of smallest extremes, it is possible to express the mean size of the deposited sediment in terms of the parameters of the original distribution at the source area. Thickness functions can be obtained as the product of expected diameter and particle frequency. If the spatial distribution f(x)of particle frequency along a linear transect can be inferred from a physical process, then this provides sufficient information for the construction of particle size and bed thickness prediction equations. Alternatively, the model places some restrictions on distribution selection if an empirical choice of f(x)is necessary. Some generalizations are obtained for trends in the mean and variance of the deposited particles on the basis of the hazard function of f(x).     

Rainfall flood hazard at nuclear power plants in India

Flood hazard evaluation is an important input for Nuclear Power Plants external events safety studies. In the present study, flood hazard at various nuclear sites in India due to rainfall has been evaluated. Hazard estimation is a statistical procedure by which rainfall intensity versus occurrence frequency is estimated from historical records of rainfall data and extrapolated with asymptotic extreme value distribution. Rainfall data needed for flood hazard assessment are daily annual maximum rainfall (24?h data). The observed data points have been fitted using Gumbel, power law and exponential distribution, and return period has been estimated. To study the stationarity of rainfall data, a moving window estimate of the parameters has been performed. The rainfall pattern is stationary in both coastal and inland regions over the period of observation. The coastal regions show intense rainfall and higher variability than inland regions. Based on the plant layout, catchment area and drainage capacity, the prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) site is unlikely to be flooded.     

Extreme value analysis of diamond-size distributions

Extreme value analysis provides a semiparametric method for analyzing the extreme long tails of skew distributions which may be observed when handling mining data. The estimation of important tail characteristics, such as the extreme value index, allows for a discrimination between competing distribution models. It measures the thickness of such long tailed distributions, if only a limited sample is available. This paper stresses the practical implementation of extreme value theory, which is used to discriminate a lognormal from a mixed lognormal distribution in a case study of size distributions for alluvial diamonds.     

Extreme temperature scenarios in Mexicali,Mexico under climate change conditions

Extreme weather events can have severe consequences for the population and the environment. Therefore, in this study a temporal trend of annual temperatures was built with a time series from 1950 to 2010 for Mexicali, Mexico, and estimates of 5- to 100-year return periods are provided by modeling of summer maximum and winter minimum temperatures. A non-parametric Kendall’s tau test and the Sen’s slope estimator were used to compute trends. The generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution was applied to the approximation of block maxima and the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) to values over a predetermined threshold. Due to the non-stationary characteristic of the series of temperature values, the temporal trend was included as a covariable in the location parameter and substantial improvements were observed, particularly with the extreme minimum temperature, compared to that obtained with the GEV with no covariable and with the GPD. A positive and significant statistically trend in both summer maximum temperature and winter minimum temperature was found. By the end of 21st century the extreme maximum temperature could be 2 to 3 °C higher than current, and the winter could be less severe, as the probabilistic model suggests increases of 7 to 9 °C in the extreme minimum temperature with respect to the base period. The foreseeable consequences on Mexicali city are discussed.     

Spatiotemporal variations of extreme sea levels around the South China Sea: assessing the influence of tropical cyclones,monsoons and major climate modes

With sea levels projected to rise as a result of climate change, it is imperative to understand not only long-term average trends, but also the spatial and temporal patterns of extreme sea level. In this study, we use a comprehensive set of 30 tide gauges spanning 1954–2014 to characterize the spatial and temporal variations of extreme sea level around the low-lying and densely populated margins of the South China Sea. We also explore the long-term evolution of extreme sea level by applying a dynamic linear model for the generalized extreme value distribution (DLM-GEV), which can be used for assessing the changes in extreme sea levels with time. Our results show that the sea-level maxima distributions range from ~?90 to 400 cm and occur seasonally across the South China Sea. In general, the sea-level maxima at northern tide gauges are approximately 25–30% higher than those in the south and are highest in summer as tropical cyclone-induced surges dominate the northern signal. In contrast, the smaller signal in the south is dominated by monsoonal winds in the winter. The trends of extreme high percentiles of sea-level values are broadly consistent with the changes in mean sea level. The DLM-GEV model characterizes the interannual variability of extreme sea level, and hence, the 50-year return levels at most tide gauges. We find small but statistically significant correlations between extreme sea level and both the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and El Niño/Southern Oscillation. Our study provides new insight into the dynamic relationships between extreme sea level, mean sea level and the tidal cycle in the South China Sea, which can contribute to preparing for coastal risks at multi-decadal timescales.

     

中国暴雨面雨量极值分布

研究了暴雨面积、面平均雨深、暴雨降水总量等有关面暴雨量极值的主要内容;给出了最大时面深记录等各种雨量极值;探讨了面暴雨极值的地域分布规律和影响因素。     

Joint return probability analysis of wind speed and rainfall intensity in typhoon-affected sea area

Strong wind and rainfall induced by extreme meteorological processes such as typhoons have a serious impact on the safety of bridges and offshore engineering structures. A new bivariate compound extreme value distribution is proposed to describe the probability dependency structure of annual extreme wind speed and concomitant process maximum rainfall intensity in typhoon-affected area. This probability model takes full account of the case that there may be no rainfall in a typhoon process. A case study based on the observation data of typhoon maximum wind speed and maximum rainfall intensity in Shanghai is conducted to testify the efficiency of the model. Weibull distributions with two parameters are applied to fit respective probability margins, and the joint probability distribution is constructed by Gumbel–Hougaard copula. The fitting results and K–S tests show that these models describe the original data well. The joint return periods are calculated by Poisson bivariate compound extreme value distribution we have proposed. They indicate that typhoons with no rain have smaller joint return periods, and wind speed is the main factor which impacts the change of the joint return periods.     

Statistics for Modeling Heavy Tailed Distributions in Geology: Part II. Applications

In this paper, we present three diverse types of applications of extreme value statistics in geology, namely: earthquakes magnitudes, diamond values, and impact crater size distribution on terrestrial planets. Each of these applications has a different perspective toward tail modeling, yet many of these phenomena exhibit heavy or long tails which can be modeled by power laws. It is shown that the estimation of important tail characteristics, such as the extreme value index, is directly linked to the interpretation of the underlying geological process. Only the most extreme data are useful for studying such phenomena, so thresholds must be selected above which the data become power laws. In the case of earthquake magnitudes, we investigate the use of extreme value statistics in predicting large events on the global scale and for shallow intracontinental earthquakes in Asia. Large differences are found between estimates obtained from extreme value statistics and the usually applied standard statistical techniques. In the case of diamond deposits, we investigate the impact of the most precious stones in the global valuation of primary deposits. It is shown that in the case of Pareto-type behavior, the expected value of few extreme stones in the entire deposit has considerable influence on the global valuation. In the case of impact crater distributions, we study the difference between craters distributions on Earth and Mars and distributions occurring on other planets or satellites within the solar system. A striking result is that all planets display the same distributional tail except for Earth and Mars. In a concluding account, we demonstrate the apparent loghyperbolic variation in all of the above-mentioned examples.     

1961-2012年辽宁省极端气温事件气候变化特征

利用辽宁省52个气象台站逐日平均气温、 最高气温和最低气温数据, 使用国际通用的10种极端气候指数, 研究了1961-2012年辽宁省极端气温事件的气候变化特征. 结果表明: 年平均极端气温事件空间分布存在明显的地区差异. 时间尺度上, 1961-2012年辽宁省年及四季极端暖事件(暖昼日数、 暖夜日数、 夏季日数、 热带夜数和热浪持续指数)呈增加趋势, 极端冷事件(冷昼日数、 冷夜日数、 结冰日数、 霜冻日数和寒潮持续指数)呈减少趋势; 极端暖事件在20世纪90年代中期开始明显增加, 极端冷事件在20世纪80年代末期开始显著减少; 极端暖事件的变化速率要小于极端冷事件. 辽宁省气温日较差有增大的趋势, 极端暖(冷)事件的增加(减少)在秋季(冬季)最为显著. 空间变化上, 极端气温事件在全省基本都呈一致的增加或减少的分布. 多数极端气温事件均存在8 a左右的周期, 检测到的突变的时间大致在20世纪80年代中期到90年代末期. 20世纪80年代末期辽宁省气候变暖后, 极端暖事件和冷事件均有明显的增加和减少.     

我国新疆北部地区夏季极端降水事件的特征分析

基于1961 - 2017年6 - 8月新疆北部47个观测站点的逐日降水资料, 根据百分位法定义不同站点的夏季极端降水阈值, 分析了新疆北部地区夏季极端降水事件和最大日降水的时空分布特征、 贡献率及其与海拔的关系。结果表明： 新疆北部地区夏季极端降水事件和最大日降水量的各个特征量分布存在明显的时空差异, 空间上夏季极端降水事件、 最大日降水量表现为山区高、 盆地低的特点,在海拔2 000 m左右存在一个最大降水带; 夏季极端降水事件和最大日降水量呈增多、 增强的趋势, 并从20世纪90年代前后开始有明显的增加。夏季极端降水事件主要以单日为主, 夏季极端降水贡献随时间呈缓慢增加的趋势, 而夏季极端降水过程贡献和最大日降水贡献随时间变化呈下降趋势。     

Spatio-temporal variations in precipitation on the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain from 1963 to 2012

Spatio-temporal variations in precipitation are affecting agricultural production in China in the context of climate change. Based on daily precipitation data from 63 national meteorological stations on the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain from 1963 to 2012, this paper analysed the spatio-temporal variations in precipitation in terms of precipitation days and intensity, using spatial interpolation, linear trend estimation and wavelet analysis. The results indicated that: (i) from 1963 to 2012, the number of annual precipitation days and intensity decreased gradually from the southeast to the northwest. Additionally, the distribution of the extreme precipitation index was similar to that of the annual precipitation index; (ii) the number of annual precipitation days and heavy precipitation days gradually decreased, while precipitation intensity and extreme precipitation days and extreme rainfall intensity remained relatively stable or decreased. The spatial patterns of annual variation trends were considerably different. The annual precipitation days and intensity trends are consistent with the overall trend, while that of the extreme rainfall index in some regions differs from the overall trend; (iii) the precipitation index displayed different periodic oscillations during the period, and the precipitation index values differed at different time scales. However, all the precipitation index values exhibited a 28-yr oscillation.     

1961-2010年西北干旱区极端降水指数的时空变化分析

结合绝对阈值和百分位法定义极端降水事件的优点,提出了一种更灵敏的检测极端降水事件的方法. 该方法不仅能检测出常用降水指数无法检测到的降水量稀少地区尤其干旱区的极端降水事件,同时也能过滤掉其检测到的降水量丰富地区的虚假极端降水事件. 此方法首次被应用于统计1961年1月至2010年2月西北干旱区72个气象站点的年和季节的极端降水指数（大降水和强降水指数）,并分析了极端降水指数的时间变化趋势及其空间分布特征. 结果表明：西北干旱区春（3-5月）、秋（9-11月）、冬（12月至次年2月）三季极端降水指数无显著（P>0.05）变化趋势,夏季（6-8月）大降水的频率和降水量以及大降水降水量占总降水量的比重都显著增加;新疆地区极端降水指数为增加趋势的区域基本都分布在海拔较高（约海拔1 000 m以上）的地区;西北干旱区东部极端降水指数变化趋势的空间分布有明显的季节差异,表现为夏、秋季大部分地区为增加趋势,冬、春季大部分地区为减小趋势.     

北京地区强降水极端气候事件阈值

根据北京地区1951～2008年逐日降水量资料,采用排序法、插值法、正态变换法、平方根变换法和立方根变换法等5种计算阈值的方法,对强降水极端气候事件阈值的确定问题进行研究。研究结果表明,确定日降水量百分位阈值的方法,在5种计算阈值的方法中,平方根变换方法得到最好的效果。在阈值确定的样本中,可以使用30年滑动气候阶段的样本得到的阈值平均值,作为极端气候事件阈值。     

Satellite-based rainfall estimation and discharge measurement of Middle Indus River,Pakistan

The impacts of floods and droughts are intensified by climate change, lack of preparedness, and coordination. The average rainfall in study area is ranging from 200 to 400 mm per year. Rain gauge generally provides very accurate measurement of point rain rates and the amounts of rainfall but due to scarcity of the gauge locations provides very general information of the area on regional scale. Recognizing these practical limitations, it is essential to use remote sensing techniques for measuring the quantity of rainfall in the Middle Indus. In this research, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) estimation can be used as a proxy for the magnitude of rainfall estimates from classical methods (rain gauge), quantity, and its spatial distribution for Middle Indus river basin. In order to use TRMM satellite data for discharge measurement, its accuracy is determined by statistically comparing it with in situ gauged data on daily and monthly bases. The daily R ² value (0.42) is significantly lower than monthly R ² value (0.82), probably due to the time of summation of TRMM 3-hourly precipitation data into daily estimates. Daily TRMM data from 2003 to 2012 was used as input forcing in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model along with other input parameters. The calibration and validation results of SWAT model give R ² = 0.72 and 0.73 and Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency = 0.69 and 0.65, respectively. Daily and monthly comparison graphs are generated on the basis of model discharge output and observed data.